Mexican Consulate Shows Immigrants a New Window to Health Care

Even when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, some people won’t have coverage. Undocumented immigrants don’t qualify for new insurance options under the law. One program through Mexican Consulates tries to connect this population to care.

Hundreds of Mexican immigrants and their families are at this
health fair at the Mexican consulate in Sacramento. They're
stopping at information booths, getting basic dental exams, and
lung screenings.

Dr. Sunil Perera is donating his time to screen people for
possible lung problems. He's holding what looks like an
oversized remote control. He enters data, and hands the device over
to anyone willing to try it.

PERERA: "Now, Jose Medina...
[you] smoked in the past. Jose, do you still smoke?"

MEDINA: "Cuando era joven, si."

TRANSLATOR: "When he was young…"

Jose Medina says he came to the health fair today because he
heard on TV he could get a flu shot. He says construction work has
been hard to find lately, and he only gets health services that are
free. Dr. Perera says Jose's lung test doesn't look good.

"His lung age is 89, and he's only 40," says Perera. "So the
effect of his smoking, plus air pollution where he works, all that
affects his lung. He doesn't know, he continues, someday he can't
breathe, he'll end up in the emergency room, can't breathe. That
drives the cost of health care."

The health fair is part of a Mexican government-funded program
called Ventanilla de Salud, or "health window." It contracts with
local non-profits who help raise money for the program. It
operates within the Mexican consulate, because that's where
hundreds of Mexican immigrants go every day to take care of
official business.

The Ventanilla program is set up right next to a
large waiting room. The office is covered with health posters and
handouts.

Isabel Flores is there to answer their questions. She says a lot
of the immigrants here are used to going to the emergency room, or
not going to the doctor at all.

"They end up in the emergency room because they don't know where
to go," says Flores.

"Once they're there and they see how long it takes, or that bill
and comes later and how large it is, that is an easy way for them
to get discouraged. They'll say 'oh, well, I went to get services,
but then this is what happened, and I don't want to go back.'"

Flores says they're going to the ER for conditions like diabetes
or high blood pressure.

"They come in and say 'oh yeah, can you please let me know what
hospitals I can go [to]? And I say 'No no no, it's not
hospital, it's clinic. And I explain to them the difference. And
this way they know what the difference is, they know that a
hospital or an emergency room should be for an emergency," explains
Flores.

So Isabel hands out a list of local clinics. Some of them are
run by churches or medical student volunteers, others are clinics
that receive federal money.

That idea concerns people like Ira Mehlman of Federation for
American Immigration Reform or FAIR. FAIR says the federal
government spends almost 6 billion dollars a year on medical care
for undocumented immigrant families.

"The US needs to make it very clear that we cannot afford to pay
for health care for people from all over the world," says Mehlman.
"What we need to do is to establish immigration laws, and enforce
immigration laws in a way that discourages people from
coming here in the first place."

But a RAND study suggests the amount of government money spent
on undocumented immigrants is much lower than the FAIR estimate,
and overall, accounts for just a small fraction of government
spending on health care. It says the undocumented consume
less health care, and may be healthier than the larger American
population.

The Ventanilla program is one of 50 at Mexican Consulates around
the United States. Consul General in Sacramento Carlos Gonzalez
Guitierrez says the Ventanilla programs help people find care who
may be too afraid to seek it out otherwise.

"To the extent that people with chronic diseases constitute a
public health risk if they not treated, to the extent that
emergency rooms are extremely expensive, I think that the
Ventanilla de Salud programs provide an important service to
society as a whole," says Gonzalez-Guitierrez.

The Ventanilla program also helps Mexicans sign up for their
country's public health insurance. If they choose to go back, care
is low-cost, or free.

The California Endowment provided initial funding for the
Ventanilla de Salud program. The Endowment also provides financial
support to Capital Public Radio.